Here Is The Sickest Bad Beat

Banned From The WSOP Forever

Have you ever wondered about different ways of getting banned from a casino or poker tournament? You could start arguing with the staff or steal a sandwich. It will for sure work, just ask Luke Schwartz if you don't believe me. So, what does it take to get banned for life from the World Series of Poker? This is a story about a man who got banned for life the other day, according to Michael Craig's (poker pro) blog.

"How do you get banned for life from the World Series of Poker? According to Tournament Director Jack Effel, "You don't take someone else's chips." This is apparently what happened to the player who escorted from the Amazon Room during the third level of play in the $1,000 NLHE on Saturday afternoon."

"Several players at our table noticed a fiftyish-looking man with gray hair, wearing a baseball cap, being escorted from the Amazon room by three Harrah's security guards. The player in seat one asked Jack Effel , when he walked by a half-hour later, what happened to the guy, "so I don't do the same thing."
Jack explained that Baseball Cap was in a hand with another player when the announcement came that level 2 had ended and the 20-minute break was starting. As is usually the case, the players not in the hand got up and left the table.

The two remaining players played out the hand and our culprit happened to win it. As the dealer pushed the pot his way and he started raking it in, he just pulled the chips in with one hand. He set his other hand down in the spot next to him as if he was using it for leverage to lean forward to pull in the chips. In fact, he placed that hand over a stack of chips of the player next to him (who had left the table like all the others for break).

As he was pulling in the pot with one hand, he noticed the dealer's eyes move off him and at that moment pulled in the chips that were underneath his other hand. To the naked eye it just looked like he was pulling in the chips with both hands.

I don't know whether the adjacent player returned and noticed the missing chips or if this was discovered some other way, but a look at the tape confirmed it and the offending player was gone.
Jack Effel concluded the explanation by saying, "He'll be banned from the World Series forever."

Lost Boys: The Thirst - Trailer

The Frog brothers are back and they're up against a vampire menace that's on a huge scale. Here's the trailer for Warner Premiere's Lost Boys: The Thirst, the sequel to 2008's Lost Boys: The Tribe. Corey Feldman's back and so is Jamison Newlander (curious to see how they explain his vampirism in the deleted scenes for The Tribe). Dario Piana directs this time and it look like he's improved upon the last entry, then again anything is better than The Tribe. Enough talk. Just click on the player below and stay tuned for a release date.

Ugly But I Will Take One

 

A radical new look for the coveted gold bracelet that goes to the winner of a 2010 WSOP event.

Absolute Poker Loses Poker Pro

Online poker room Absolute Poker is one sponsored player short. Top female player Lacey Jones has announced she has left the poker room. As one of the sponsored pros, Jones would wear Absolute Poker gear and otherwise represent the poker room at various events. The news coming the day before the start of the 2010 WSOP suggests that she may be about to represent another online poker room, as the World Series of Poker is a highly visible proving ground for poker players. Jones made the announcement of her leaving the poker room to Bryan Micon.

Fake Chips, 5 Years and $70,000

A man who was caught counterfeiting poker chips was sentenced this week. Fifty year old William Reece Lancaster was sentenced to five years probation. Reece made chips to play at the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe’s Grand Lake Casino in Oklahoma. He has to pay restitution costs of $70,000 and will serve the first six months of term in home detention. He could have spent up to ten years in prison and paid $250k in fines. The chips were made using small denomination poker chips he repainted to look like $500 chips.

Michael Mizrachi Leads WSOP $50,000 Player’s Championship After Day 3

Twenty-one players remain in the $50,000 Player’s Championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) after Day 3. Leading the field is a familiar face, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who owns a stack of 1.48 million chips entering Day 4. Hot on his heels with 1.43 million is Russia’s Vladimir Schmelev. Also appearing in the top 10 is Robert Mizrachi, brother of “The Grinder.”

One of the final eliminations of Sunday’s play at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas belonged to Hasan Habib. Day 2 chip leader Kirk Morrison made aces-up in Stud Eight or Better and neither player managed to make a low. Morrison’s stack shot up to 610,000 as a result and he ended the day with 518,000. Habib barely missed out on the money, as the top 16 players will cash. The minimum payout is $98,000 and a top prize of $1.5 million is up for grabs.

Also busting on Sunday was Erik Sagstrom, who 3bet all-in pre-flop with 10-8 of spades during Limit Hold’em, but ran into high-stakes cash game pro David Oppenheim’s Q-J. Sagstrom could not improve and he headed for the exit. Sagstrom finished third in last year’s $50,000 WSOP HORSE Championship for over $500,000. Oppenheim took fifth in the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship and grabbed third in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open in 2003.

Oppenheim sent former CardRunners instructor Cole South to the rails during No Limit Hold’em. South was all-in with pocket eights in a race against Oppenheim’s A-K. Oppenheim flopped two pair and an eight never fell, sending South out short of the money bubble. South left CardRunners in late April to play poker and work on his college degree.

The remaining field of the $50,000 Player’s Championship represents a beastly group. Brett Richey and David “Bakes” Baker are carrying the flag for the online poker world, while the remaining players primarily consist of seasoned poker pros like Andy Bloch, 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champ John Juanda, 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship runner-up Erik Seidel, and WPT co-founder Lyle Berman.

Here’s a look at the survivors of Day 3 of the Player’s Championship at the 2010 WSOP:

1. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi – 1,483,000
2. Vladimir Schmelev – 1,432,000
3. David Oppenheim – 1,340,000
4. Abe Mosseri – 1,338,000
5. Daniel Alaei – 1,227,000
6. Robert Mizrachi – 1,032,000
7. Mikael Thuritz – 952,000
8. Allen Bari – 940,000
9. James Van Alstyne – 845,000
10. John Juanda – 788,000
11. Brett Richey – 754,000
12. David Baker – 713,000
13. Lyle Berman – 696,000
14. Alexander Kostritsyn – 638,000
15. Nick Schulman – 611,000
16. Ilya Bulychev – 602,000
17. Kirk Morrison – 518,000
18. Andy Bloch – 418,000
19. Erik Seidel – 373,000
20. David Singer – 364,000
21. Eli Elezra – 336,000